The Ochsen had long been known in the Schönwald district, but it was located in Weißenbach. Back then, you couldn't just open an inn, you needed a "Schildgerechtigkeit". This was strictly limited, much like distilling rights are today. What's more, you couldn't call your pub whatever you liked - the name was determined by the authorities. Incidentally, this is why there were never more than 250 "Ochsen" in the Black Forest. And that is the reason why there are so many "Hirschen", "Adler" and "Sternen" in the Black Forest towns.

Martin Blasius, a clockmaker by trade and the great-great-grandfather of the current owner Barbara Martin, bought the shield rights of the inn in Weißenbach from his cousin, the Adlerwirt, for 200 guilders in 1790. This is how he established the Ochsen in the house built in 1796 on Winterberg, in Kirnacherstraße, which is now called Ludwig-Uhland-Straße. Today, the silver value of these guilders is a proud 110,000 euros.

Blasius' father-in-law sold the young couple - Blasius had married Elisabeth Siedle, the daughter of the "Hirschen" - a good 20 Juchert of field and forest and gave them 9 acres of "Sägwald" as a dowry on the occasion of their marriage. At that time, a Juchert was the area that an ox team could plough in one day, about 3,300 square metres.

The ox was passed on from generation to generation, cattle were kept, farming was practised, the ingredients for the Black Forest dishes in the inn came from there, and the house was able to feed the respective Martin family well. At that time, it was common for families to run hotels and inns on several tracks. The combination of agriculture, brewery and hotel is classic, as it also happened in the Ochsen. But the fourth generation of the Martin family also had a taxi business. So it was no problem to pick up the summer visitors, who mainly travelled by train in the post-war years, at the nearest railway station, St. Georgen. It must also have been around this time that a large poster advertised the Ochsen: "Guaranteed dust-free rooms!" For in fact asphalted roads were not yet the rule. So with such little things one courted the favour of the guests.

One should not forget that in the boom years, the demands of the guests were put to the test: If more people registered than the hotel could accommodate, they were sometimes moved to the living room of a close acquaintance. Such outsourced guests also had to put up with a few minutes' walk to the hotel where breakfast was served. Moreover, running water was a luxury that not many could afford.

After 1965, the chronicler Richard Dorer writes: "It was a modest house with a few simple rooms and only 2 employees." In this year, Ursula and Horst Martin took over the hotel in the 5th generation and set the signs for the future. Tourism" continued to increase and so it was their will to turn the simple house into a hotel for the discerning guest.

Many houses that invested at that time disappeared from the scene very quickly. Not so the Ochsen - because of Horst Martin's foresighted planning. In 1972 he built the new bed wing with modern rooms above the former brewery building, six years later the indoor swimming pool with sauna and in 1981 a tennis court was added. Ivan Lendl, John McEnroe, Björn Borg and Jimmy Connors dominated the action back then.

In 1984, the Landhaus was built above the brewery's ice cellar with additional rooms, so that by the mid-1980s the Ochsen had 80 beds and 22 employees looking after the well-being of guests from all over the world. In this year, the Ochsen became a member of the "Ringhotels Deutschland" and clubhouse of the Rotary Club Furtwangen-Triberg, which still holds meetings and events in the Ochsen today.

The investments and the construction of the ox, which were started by Ursula and Horst Martin, were continued in the following years by Barbara Martin and Björn Dalbeck-Martin.

In the 2000s, the "Garden Room" extension was completed in the lower restaurant area, which has increased the capacity in the restaurant by 64 seats and can be used for weddings, birthdays, corporate events and other festivities. The resulting new roof area is used as a terrace by the rooms above.

Also in the 2000s, the old vaulted cellar of the brewery was converted into a wellness area with two saunas, steam bath and solarium, and the former garages on the ground floor were converted into treatment rooms. Since the Ochsen now has four floors - from the wellness area in the old brewery cellar to the third floor with guest rooms - accessible to guests, the outside lift was added in 2004, via which three of the four floors can be reached.

In the 2010s, the rooms in the bed wing built in 1972 were completely renovated, creating three new categories with a total of 18 rooms. Since then, the house has 34 rooms with 68 beds, whereby individual rooms can accommodate up to two additional beds, as well as two family rooms with 4 beds each.

The Corona crisis in 2020 and 2021 forced the Martin family and the Ochsen team to take a forced break. During the seven-month second lockdown, many areas of the restaurant were completely renovated and converted to modern systems. For example, the hot kitchen was redesigned and installed from scratch. The drinks buffet in the restaurant was also completely taken out and replaced by a new bar with plenty of space.

The staff now benefits from the latest cash register technology and software, which brought great rationalisation: walking distances were shortened, orders arrived more efficiently in the respective area, information on products and services could be retrieved more quickly. In this way, the service can be made even more guest-oriented.